NEW YORK and KINGSPORT, Tenn., Nov. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- An unwavering emphasis on safety by Eastman (NYSE: EMN) will help transform the curriculum of undergraduate chemical engineering students around the globe, through a collaboration with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers...

There are many critical points for inclusion in a Risk Based Process Safety program. This paper focuses on ten of them. While a person could come up with many more, these are the most important in the author's experience.

The US presidential commission's "Deep Water" report inquiring into the causes of a recent Gulf of Mexico accident recommends an independent industry-run safety organization along the lines of the nuclear and the chemicals industry for the US offshore industries. The report in reference to essential features of this "self-policing" organization states: "The main goal is to drive continuous improvement in every company's standards and performance, measured against global benchmarks" and The industry needs to benchmark safety and environmental practice rules against recognized global best practices." CCPS has published recommended lagging and leading indicators of Process Safety performance which enable companies to track and monitor their efforts. Lagging indicators help companies compare their process safety performance in regard to incident frequency and severity, i.e. tier 1 and 2 events. Comparison of leading indicators level, i.e. tier 3 and 4 activities, isn't possible without establishing a deeper understanding of the management decision process. Tier 1 and 2 data is relatively easy to obtain but there is currently no way for companies to formally compare how their respective tier 3 and 4 practices affect either the consequences or the severity of the outcome. Formal benchmarking provides an opportunity for companies to identify gaps in their current practices so that they can work towards continuous improvement. By sharing their data they help create a better understanding of industry best practices that then become global benchmarks for others to emulate. The paper details salient aspects of a process safety benchmarking initiative recently developed in conjunction with CCPS that considers performance on six of the twenty Risk-Based Process Safety elements. The paper briefly describes how the program was developed and provides new insights into HSE management. Later, it illustrates how the upstream industry can learn from the downstream industry. Copyright 2011, Society of Petroleum Engineers.